I have been watching the Katrina coverage on the news in complete disbelief. My heart pours out to those people who find themselves trapped there because they had no other choice. The folks who stayed out of hubris, that's a different story, but I pray for them nonetheless. The video footage is heart wrenching, especially the babies, young children, and the elderly. What is particularly disturbing though are the reports from the city that no information is being disseminated to the survivors, that there is no available food or water, and that looters and thugs are running rampant through the city. For a country that engineered a war halfway around the world with surgical precision to the tune of $191,480,000,000, to not be able to better prepared for and coordinate a response to this natural disaster is inhumane and embarrasing. In this day and age, this seems inexcusable.
I mean who came up with this plan? New Orleans' levees were built to withstand a Cat 3 hurricane, and here comes a Cat 4, so lets get everyone to the Superdome, but let's not stockpile food and water there. And if the government officials from the Mayor of New Orleans all the way up to the President knew that this storm was going to be dangerous enough to order evacuations on Sunday (and perhaps earlier) why does it seem like they are still fumbling around for an effective plan to save the storm's survivor's? When Mr. Bush assures the American public that New Orleans will rebuild and will emerge from this stronger, please forgive me if I don't get the warm and fuzzies. Those comments bring to mind the words "Mission Accomplished."
